RCB need to look beyond Virat Kohli for captaincy: Gautam Gambhir

Gambhir made his comments on ESPNcricinfo's show T20 Time Out after Virat Kohli-led RCB lost the Eliminator to the Sunrisers Hyderabad by six wickets, ending their season with seven wins and eight losses.

After being asked to bat first, RCB could only manage 131/7 on the board after 20 overs. SRH chased down the target with ease and won the match by six wickets.

Gambhir pointed out that eight years is a long time and if a team fails to win a single title in this period than the captain should be held accountable. The former cricketer said that he holds nothing against Virat Kohli but it was time for the 32-year-old to raise his hands and take the responsibility of team's title-less run in the IPL.

''Eight years into the tournament [without a trophy], eight years is a long time. Tell me any other captain…forget about the captain, tell me any other player who would have got eight years and wouldn’t have won the title and would have still continued with it. So it has to be accountability. A captain needs to take accountability,'' Gambhir told ESPNCricinfo.

"It's not only about one year, it's not only about this. I have nothing against Virat Kohli but somewhere down the line, he needs to put his hand up and say, 'yes, I am responsible, I am accountable','' he added.

The former India opener also mentioned that Kohli's counterparts, MS Dhoni (CSK) and Rohit Sharma (MI) have been long-standing captains of their teams because of their deliverance.

He asserted that MI management would have removed Rohit Sharma from captaincy for a failure of 8 long years.

"Eight years is a long, long time. Look at what happened to R Ashwin. Two years of captaincy [for the Kings XI Punjab], he couldn't deliver and he was removed. We talk about MS Dhoni, we talk about Rohit Sharma, we talk about Virat Kohli... not at all. Dhoni has won three [IPL] titles, Rohit Sharma has won four titles, and that's the reason they've captained for such a long time because they've delivered. I'm sure if Rohit Sharma wouldn't have delivered for eight years, he would have been removed as well. There should not be different yardsticks for different people,'' Gambhir highlighted.

"The problem and the accountability starts from the top, not from the management nor the support staff, but from the leader. You're the leader, you're the captain. When you get the credit, you should take the criticism as well,'' he added.